Appas, i. e., there arrived Appas. After pat, leste, bute, forte, zif the verb is found in the subjunctive, but not always.

It must be observed, in regard to all these rules, that the later text is seldom uniform, but exhibits everywhere the effects of a gradual desuetude of the original structure of the A. S. forms of grammar.

THE

GRAMMATICAL FORMS OF SOUTHERN

ENGLISH,

OCCURRING IN THE ANCREN RIWLE.

(About A.D. 1220-30.)

THE language bears a great resemblance to Anglo-Saxon, especially in its later stages. The verbs retain nearly all their inflections, with but slight changes. The nouns, on the other hand, have suffered considerably. From the loss of many endings and the more extensive employment of others, the declensions of nouns have become simpler and less varied. The genders of the nouns are kept up to a large extent, being mostly the same as in Anglo-Saxon.

NOUNS.

MASCULINES.

Of masculine nouns there are two declensions. Those of the first are declined thus :

Feder has the gen. sing. sometimes without, sometimes with eshis Feder wisdom, & his Feder strencõe, his father's wis

dom and his father's strength; ower uederes zerde, your father's rod.

The dat. sing. is often like the acc.; in other words, the -e is often missing.

The gen. pl. has the ending -e sometimes, as dunte, of strokes, but oftener -ene. Examples:unte lodest, loathest of strokes : pe englene uerd, the army of angels; mučene swetest, sweetest of" mouths; pe pornene krune, the crown of thorns; alre peauwene moder, mother of all virtues; of fuwelene cunde, of the nature of fowls; alle monne ledene & englene, all the tongues of men and angels.

The masculine nouns of the second declension are declined thus:

Examples of gen. sing. :-bore hweolp, bear's whelp; asse earen, ass's ears; pe drake heaued, the head of the dragon; his sune deað, his son's death; his wuruhte honden, the hands of its maker.

The following are deviations from these two declensions :broder, mon, toð, vot, make pl. bredren, men, ted, vet; mon nas gen. pl. monne, and some of its compounds follow it:alre monne dusigest, most foolish of all men; bi heord-monne hulen, by the herdmen's tents.

Some have the nom. sing. ending in a consonant, whilst the other cases take -e, as N. hen, G. henne. But these cases are few, the nom. having -e, like the other cases, nearly always. A few also which end in a consonant retain the same form throughout the sing., as, buruh.

Examples of gen. sing. :-ine tunge honden, in the hands (power) of the tongue; for ane cwene worde, for a woman's word; in Eue point, in Eve's case; in Marie wombe, in Mary's womb; wuluene stefne, the voice of a she-wolf; henne kunde, the nature of a hen; a nelde prikiunge, pricking of a needle; pe wombe pot, the pot of the belly; pe neddre heaued, the serpent's head; pene helle dogge, the dog of hell; soule uode, food of the soul; i pine heorte bur, in the bower of thy heart; wiðinnen his moder wombe, within his mother's womb; pe buruh preostes, the priests of the city. Such are the common forms. Instances, however, are not wanting of feminine gen. sing. in -es-his moderes wop, his mother's weeping; Hesteres nome, Esther's name; 3iscunges salue, the remedy of covetousness; efter nihtes peosternesse, after the darkness of the night.

Some feminine nouns have the pl. ending -en, as :—urouren, comforts; honden, hands; sustren, sisters; douhtren, daughters; neddren, serpents; etc.; others have es-lokunges, lookings; fondunges, temptations; eadinesses, beatitudes.

NEUTERS.

Neuter nouns are declined nearly in the same manner as masculines.

The dat. sing. is often like the accusative, without the e.

Some neuters have -en or -n in the pl., as treou, tree stick,

pl. treon. Lim, limb, has pl. limen or limes.

The gen. pl. where it occurs ends in -e, -ene, or -en-pinge strengest, strongest of things; among wiuene sunes, among the sons of women; hore hefden sturiunge, the shaking of their heads; to childrene scole, to a children's school.

Eare is perhaps the only noun which follows eie.

The following points are worthy of notice: 1. The sing. has cast off from its endings the -n which is seen in the A. S. weak declension. 2. The -es of the gen. sing. has begun to be extended to the feminine nouns. 3. The pl. ending -es, originally only masculine, is now used for all genders. 4. There is no longer any special form for the dat. pl., but it is like the accusative. These are all steps toward the modern language.

ADJECTIVES.

Adjectives and Past Participles, though not regularly and constantly inflected, retain many marks of their former declension. When preceded by pe, pes (= this), or a possessive pronoun, they have the definite inflection -e, as :-pe grimme wrastlare, the grim wrestler; o pen uorbodene eppele, on the forbidden apple; pet rotede lich, the rotten corpse; pes laste bore hweolp, this last bear's whelp; mid hore eadie bonen, with their blessed prayers; mine leoue sustren, my dear sisters.

Under other circumstances, adjectives and past participles take the endings of the indefinite declension, as may be seen in the following examples :-gen. sing. masc. of reades monnes blode, of the blood of a red man; alles weis, in every way, by all means; dat. sing. masc. in one wel itowune mude, in a well ordered mouth ; acc. sing. masc. enne widne hod, a wide hood; enne fulne nome, a foul name; nenne swuchne mon, no such man; enne swuðe